Always be aware of the physicality of a character, because you are in a picture, you are in a painting, you are in a choreographic sort of frame, so physicality can say as much and sometimes more than that words can.
Apart from stark fear, I was taken aback quite a bit. It was a huge responsibility to try and depict such a great man - such a great American.
But I find it's usually a collaboration. Very rarely does a lead exist without someone else holding on to the leash, so to speak.
Film is our literature, so we should tell stories that are apropos of our culture, in that we can learn something about ourselves.
I checked out all types of tobacco trying to find one that would be easiest to live with, I ended up using pipe tobacco. It burned slower, and it wasn't as harsh on my throat... It also smelled better.
I don't think I could've carried the weight that Murrow carried.
I think George just nailed the whole thing, the whole time period, the whole look and feel of what that newsroom was like. I did a lot of research for the role and believe me, it's all pretty genuine, down to the very last cigarette butt.
I think the film is beautifully realised. His legacy as a journalist was recorded - as it were - well, and certainly the important issues of the '50s - or even today - are delivered and presented to the audience in a rather honest and objective way.
If anyone was talking about journalism in the '50s - it was Edward R.Murrow.
If it's a role like this one, an actual live person, a legend, there's lots of material laid out.
In order to crash the party and be a clown with your own skit, you had to be there for quite a while.
In this film George presents issues that are important, essential and vital, whoever you are, about constitutional rights and the bedrock of a democracy. I am drawn to those kinds of stories because they inspire me - they are responsible to a populace and responsible to man.
It would be real nice to have some kind of bell or whistle attached to this film - it would give it a longer life. People seem to need that validation to go to a film these days.
It's a brave and very smart move, I think, because you never get derailed from the true issues in the film - these very public issues. It doesn't become a story about Edward R Murrow and how he ties his shoes.
It's a huge challenge to represent this man, and it's only six months out of his life. It's by no means a bio-pic.
It's like a piece of music; you never lose sight of the theme. Each scene pushes off to the next like music builds and you can almost hear the next chord progression, so it has a strict structure, which is very compelling.
Since there were times when we were sitting with him alone, and we were trying to figure out what his psyche was doing, I felt responsible to the right posture and the cigarette thing and the cadence in his voice, so it's reminiscent and also a little respectful of him.
So much money and energy is expended making a film that I think it should be used for positive ends.
Television and film are our libraries now. Our history books.
That's what Grant and George said, nobody would believe it, to have an actor doing McCarthy, somebody doing Eisenhower.
There are biographies, I looked at a lot of photographs of him, I heard his voice over and over and over again. You get in there and get to know the man by all of those pieces of information.
This movie isn't out to railroad you toward any particular bias, and that's where I think its power comes from.
When you're creating a character out of nothing, you have to make all the guesses as to how they walk, how they talk, how they think. It was all there on the table for us to pick and choose for Murrow.
Yeah, I was with a circus for a while. More like cannon fodder than a clown, changing costumes 16 times a show.
You forget that he caved a little bit, but the use of all that stock footage, I find, is surprisingly emotional.
You work enough with someone and you develop a shorthand. You know how he likes to work through the day and he knows where you're vulnerable and where your weaknesses and strengths are, so it makes for a good team, a team that knows who's over there behind your back.
David played 'Asteroid' in the 1991 movie "City of Hope".
David played 'Danny Dunckelman' in the 2006 film "Steel Toes".
David has a brother named Tom.
David is married to Logan Goodman and have two children.
David is the father of Tay Strathairn.
David played 'Mark Zingerline' in the 2001 film "The Victim".
David played 'Henry' in the 2005 film "Missing in America".
David played 'Sam' in the 1988 film "Call Me".
David played 'Edward R. Murrow' in the hit 2005 film "Good Night, and Good Luck".
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